This proposal seeks continued support for a highly successful intensive two-week course entitled "Fundamental Issues in Vision Research," presented at the Marine Biological Laboratory. The course provides multidisciplinary and comprehensive training in the visual system, vision-impairing diseases, and state of the art approaches to basic and translational research through didactic lectures, seminars, problem-based learning, and hands-on laboratory exercises. A class of twenty four students is selected every other year from a very strong pool of pre-doctoral and post-doctoral trainees interested in or actively engaged in vision research. The faculty of about 34 scientists from around the country includes some of the most prominent researchers in the vision field. They interact extensively with the students, who forge life-long relationships with present and future leaders in the field. The specific aims are: 1. To provide a comprehensive overview of the visual system and vital research needs to the next generation of leaders in the field of vision research. 2. To introduce those leaders-in-training to the latest state-of-the-art experimental and bioinformatic approaches in vision research. 3. To highlight the relationship between clinical problems and research directions in vision research. 4. To provide those leaders-in-training with the opportunity to establish networks with each other and with established leaders in vision research that will foster future collaborations and development of successful and productive careers in vision research. Relevance: The development of new therapies for treatment, prevention, and amelioration of diseases leading to blindness and impaired vision requires state-of-the art research, which in turn requires a steady influx into the field of talented, well trained, and productive young scientists, with a deep understanding of the visual system and the relationship between fundamental processes and human disease. This proposal seeks to nurture the very best of the next generation of vision scientists and help prepare them for research careers that will lead to new breakthroughs. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: This proposal seeks continued support for a highly successful intensive two-week course entitled "Fundamental Issues in Vision Research," held every other year and attended by some of the most talented researchers-in-training in the country. It provides them the tools necessary for successful careers in vision research that will lead to the next breakthroughs in the treatment, diagnosis, and amelioration of diseases of the visual system. It will help ensure the maintenance of an ongoing workforce of dedicated and well-trained scientists devoted to overcoming blindness.